Ex-SA cop in biker melee is fired from school bus driver job

This booking photo provided by the McLennan County Sheriff's office shows Martin Lewis. Lewis, a retired San Antonio police detective, was among about 170 people arrested during the motorcycle gang related shooting at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas, Sunday, May 17, 2015. (McLennan County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Photo: Uncredited, HOGP / Associated Press

A former San Antonio police officer arrested in the biker melee in Waco was fired from his job Wednesday as a bus driver at the Northside Independent School District.

Martin “Marty” Lewis, 62, remained behind bars on Wednesday in the McLennan County Jail on a charge of engaging in organized criminal activity. His bond was set at $1 million. Lewis retired from the San Antonio Police Department in February 2004 after 32 years. His last assignment was a detective with the vice unit, the department said.

Northside spokesman Pascual Gonzalez told the Express-News that the district learned Wednesday that Lewis had been arrested, and he was “terminated as a result of the arrest.”

The district hired Lewis in August 2014, and he passed a background check, Gonzalez said.

The bus driving job was the latest employment Lewis had obtained after leaving the force. Some who knew him said he went on to sell motorcycles at a Northeast Side Harley-Davidson dealership after retiring from SAPD.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, some who knew Lewis said he got into the motorcycle scene “full force” after retiring from SAPD, though he knew some of the players while with the department.

One retired officer said Lewis apparently associated with at least one “support group” for the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, considered by law enforcement to be one of the most dangerous motorcycle gangs in the country. The Bandidos were involved in the melee at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco that left nine people dead, 18 injured and 170 arrested, Lewis among them.

“Out in Bad Standings,” a 2006 book by a former Bandidos member who resigned after clashes with top leaders, said the Bandidos had 47 support groups in 13 U.S. states where the club had chapters in 2003. At the time, they included five in San Antonio: Macheteros, Southsiders, Westsiders, Campesinos and Malditos (aka Bad Lance), the book said.

Pictures posted to Lewis' Facebook page identify him as a one-time member of the Patrons Motorcycle Club, however, other images show him wearing different red and gold club patches identifying him as a supporter of the Bandidos, and they show he is based in San Antonio.

Other photos show Lewis posing with high-ranking members of the Bandidos, including the Austin chapter president.

Within SAPD, Lewis, was “well known,” said a retired officer who knew him. “He was always on the edge as far as a police officer is concerned.”

Tattoos, piercings and long hair were part of his persona — “before those things were popular” in police work, according to one longtime ex-officer.

“On his off time, he was hanging with questionable people,” the ex-officer said. “He used to say he was undercover, but…everybody knew him. All the strippers and all the bikers knew him. What kind of undercover work could he do?”

SAPD policy says officers “shall limit their personal and professional associations to persons of good character and whose reputations are beyond reproach.”

“Members shall not associate with known or suspected criminals where said associations do or tend to bring the department and/or the member into disrepute,” the policy states.

Lewis grew up on the East Side, and neighbors said he was an only child, and that his father was a police officer, too. His parents passed away more than 20 years ago, said neighbor Vernell Sullivan.

“He was good people,” Sullivan said. “He didn’t mess with nobody.”

Lewis’ arrest came as a surprise to some in his old neighborhood because Lewis was not known to be into motorcycle clubs before moving from the East Side after his parents died.

“He must have just gotten into it,” Sullivan said.

Lewis’ Facebook page said he went to Highlands High School and attended Odessa College. Public records show he was divorced once, and was widowed from a second wife.

Another retired officer who knew Lewis said he “wasn’t “corajudo (hot-tempered). He wasn’t peleonero (always looking for a fight).”

It was unclear Wednesday If Lewis wanted to be with the Bandidos. One of the group’s last surviving founders, Royce Showalter of San Antonio, said the Bandidos do not allow blacks to become “full patch” — full members. Lewis is black.

Showalter, who was with the Bandidos from 1967 to 1979 and helped start the first San Antonio chapter, said blacks were allowed as “hangarounds.”